Canadian Online Brokerage Review – Questrade

[David]

I’ve been on Questrade for since January and love it! Yes fees do take a large bite out of your profits but as with anything there is a learning curve. Be wary of large volume transactions as well as option fees (at a minimum double stock transaction fees)

[Sparx_AdminKeymaster]

Hi Max,

Thanks for your questions. There’s a lot of ground covered by your questions so I’ll try to answer them each.

Platforms
All Canadian brokerages have a trading interface (i.e. platform) that you can use to trade. While all brokerages have a web-based interface, there are some that also have a desktop interface that usually has much more robust functionality. So, it really depends on what kind of needs and preferences you have for entering in an order. If you need or prefer to trade more often (i.e. you are an active trader) then a desktop platform would be preferable because you can enter/place orders faster. Otherwise a web-based platform should suffice.

Reliability
The next part of your question about reliability has to do more with the data feed and network that connect to the platform. Most platforms themselves are ok, but there are all kinds of examples of brokerages having network outages during the trading day. The issue is not limited to big or small brokerages – almost all brokerages have these issues from time to time. Of course, if you are not an active trader, there’s less chance that you’ll be impacted by outages and connectivity issues.

Deposits
If you check out our comparison tables (here) you can see which brokerages have a minimum deposit requirement of under $2000 (most don’t have a minimum deposit amount). Keep in mind that at such a low deposit level you should also consider what other fees (such as a quarterly fee) you may end up paying.

Overall
If you are an inactive or less active investor, then the platform you use is not going to be a worthwhile feature to spend on. If you do care about platforms though, be sure to also factor in the data feed cost. More likely than not, given your deposit level, you’ll want to focus on a provider that will keep your transaction costs AND administration costs low. There are a couple of factors that could lower the cost to you – for example, if you are “young” investor (i.e. <25 years old) or if you are prepared to commit to regular monthly contributions to your account or trade a few times per quarter.

Since your comment came from the Questrade page, they are a worthy consideration for the above mentioned reasons however alternatives might be Virtual Brokers or TD Direct Investing as they also have platforms you might be interested in.

[max]

Is there any good and reliable trading platform ? anything with a min deposit =or below 2000$ ? For Canadian ?

[Machomp]

Completely agree with jxg67. I didn’t do my due diligence before signing up with Questrade. The ECN fees are HUGE with my penny trades (commissions can be on average $90 for large volume trades in penny stocks). I am livid (at myself) for not doing my research. I’m in the process of transferring out my cash into another broker that does not have ECN fees. OUCH!

[Hank]

Don’t put your TFSA account in Questrade.

Their system have problem. I got three notices from CRA for non-qualified investment in my account and asked me to pay 50% penalty, but it’s all due to Questrade’s error.
It’s totally waste time to deal with them.

[Carl from Team Questrade]

Hi Jacques,

I’d like to find out what happened here. Here at Questrade, we strive for the very best in client service and if we didn’t live up to your expectations in this case, I’d like to do what I can to make it right. Please send an email to support@questrade.com with your account number and direct it to the attention of “ Carlton B – Marketing” and I will follow up with you right away.

Thanks,
Carl from Team Questrade

[Jacques]

Be warned that whatever Questrade promise you via their agents when opening an account will NOT be honored for various bu$%$^@#$ reasons. Too bad I had transferred alot of money before I learned they would not honor their deal. I am selling everything and cancelling my account as soon as the market will allow me. It may cost me extra money, but I cannot support a company that outright lies to you to get you to open big accounts and then blame it on my understanding. I understood right! I am out of here!!!!

[starplus]

I would like to warn all the account holders of Questrade and any one planning to trade in future through this…recently my account was hacked by someone and he made a large no of trades without my knowledge and within an hour. Questrade has no system to inform or flag it’s user from such fraud or security breach. They did not alert me even after such a huge amount of transaction happened in my account. Luckily I logged in the evening and to my surprise my account was in a huge mess. When I called up the customer support all they had to say was that they are not liable in case of security breach. This is a huge problem..this can happen to anyone anyday. I have incurred a huge loss with no fault of mine.

[Damien]

Egh, Never Mind! You can’t trade stocks with them, just FX. Now I’m searching too hard!

[Damien]

The decision doesn’t get easier for new guys looking to start trading stocks. Every forum or website I go to is bouncing me around from one broker to the next.

Being tossed being IB and Questrade until today. I know it really depends on the type of investing you’ll be involved with. One thing is for sure “It’s not as simple as taking $1000 and going right at it”

What about Easy-Forex?

Any experience with them?

[Author]

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